


The Adventure of the New Driver

by ForestWren



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Enemies to Friends, F/M, First Meetings, Fluff, Food Banks, Fruit, Meet-Cute, Mentioned COVID-19, Mentioned Poe Dameron, Pre-Relationship, Vegetables, it's not important to the story though, the dread that is loose pears, volunteering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-12 07:29:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28506744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForestWren/pseuds/ForestWren
Summary: Rey, Poe, Finn, and Rose have been volunteering at their local food bank for years -- but everything might be about to change when an irritating stranger is hired to drive the produce truck.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 10
Kudos: 26





	The Adventure of the New Driver

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Friendoftrees](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Friendoftrees/gifts).



Rey sighed. She didn’t want to go out today. Normally she loved volunteering at the food bank, but today would be the first day that Leia wasn’t there and Rey was  _ not _ looking forward to dealing with the new driver.

She volunteered at a produce distribution site, along with a core group of her friends and a rotating cast of others. On the first and third Thursday of each month, rain or shine, she, Finn, Poe, and Rose would show up in an empty parking lot by a library in the center of town and hand out food for free. The whole operation was mostly run by volunteers — the only person at their location who was employed by the food bank was the person who drove the food-filled-truck and resolved disputes. Up until this week, that person had been one Leia Organa. Everyone loved her, and she was something of a mother figure to Rey. 

Then Leia got a promotion, and their easy routine was thrown for a loop. Leia would be moving to a much better-paying desk job, closer to her family and easier on her muscles. It was a wonderful thing for her. 

Rey wondered if it was wrong of her to wish it had never happened. 

But nothing could be done about it now. She was still here, and Leia wasn’t, and she wasn’t going to let  _ anything _ stop her from coming to the Rebellion, as Poe had taken to calling it. No matter how terrible this new guy turned out to be, she would persevere. It was worth it. Besides, it wasn’t like she hadn’t been through worse.

That didn’t mean she had to like it, though.

She didn’t have much hope that the new guy would live up to the impressive expectations that Leia left behind. Honestly, she didn’t have much hope that he would live up to  _ any _ expectations, period. She’d seen him a few times when he came with Leia to train, lurking behind the older woman like a looming stormcloud of a man. She couldn’t say she’d met him, because he never said a word to anyone. He hadn’t even introduced himself to the volunteers — Finn had taken to calling him Adam, for lack of anything better. Rey didn’t think ‘Adam’ knew any of their names, either. As she said, he never talked.

Well, except for that time he’d called Poe pathetically incompetent after Poe had accidentally been giving out too many potatoes and then immediately walked away. 

Yeah, Rey was not looking forward to this.

As usual, Rey arrived a few minutes before she needed to. Finn arrived a few minutes later, and they caught up on each others’ week while they waited for the others to arrive. 

“I think Poe’s not going to make it today,” Finn said after a moment. “Family emergency, or something.”

Rey laughed. “Are we sure he’s not just avoiding the new guy?”

Finn chuckled. “I wouldn’t blame him if he was, honestly. Last time was not fun. Fingers crossed things go better today.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t blame him either. I considered backing out myself, honestly, but we rebels have to stick together.”

“Right!” said Finn. “Even if this goes terribly, we shall persevere. If we survived the Day of Blood and Tears, we can survive this.”

Rey laughed again. “Exactly.”

Rose arrived a few minutes later, and the three of them caught up until, at precisely 11:30, the truck arrived.

It pulled in slowly and carefully, beeping as it reversed. Rey thought it was rather ominous, but that might have just been her. Then the truck turned and parked perpendicular to the way Leia had always parked it. 

Rey glared at the truck. This was going exactly as well as she’d feared.

Still, she wasn’t about to let this stop her. She strode forward the moment the truck stopped moving, turning the giant handle on the back to unlock the doors and shoving the door upward to get to the gloves. Rose (having brought her own gloves, as usual) opened the other doors and narrated what she found inside each one. Finn could be heard opening up the other side. Rey frowned to herself. With just the three of them and the new driver, today would be hectic. 

Since the quarantine had started, the food bank had been as socially distanced as possible. For each pallet of produce on the truck, a roughly six-foot-long table would be set out, on one end of which would stand a volunteer. The volunteer would place the produce from the truck onto the far end of the table, then back to be six feet away from it. People in need of food would then move in a spaced-out line around the truck, taking the fruits and vegetables from the end of each table before leaving so the volunteer could replenish the table. Ideally, there would be six or seven volunteers total — one for each table, plus one to make sure everyone was counted for data purposes. With just the three of them and ‘Adam,’ things might get rough today. She hoped some other volunteers showed up eventually.

She fished around for correctly-sized gloves and deliberately did not look over as she heard the driver’s door open. If he wanted to talk, he could come and start a conversation on his own.

Rose greeted him cheerfully. He grunted a “hello” in response. His voice was deeper than she remembered. Still just as broody and irritating as ever, though. 

Rose seemed determined to get some actual communication out of him. 

“What’s your name?” she chirped, ever cheerful.

“Ben,” he muttered.

There was a beat of silence. Ben said nothing.

“Nice to meet you! I’m Rose,” Rose said eventually, deciding that he wasn’t going to ask. “This is Rey, and Finn is on the other side of the truck somewhere. Poe comes in a lot too, but he isn’t here today. I believe you met him before.”

Rey smirked at the slight accusation in Rose’s tone. Good for her. Unfortunately, Rey was holding firm in her resolution not to look at the new driver, so she couldn’t see his reaction. It was probably for the best — now she could imagine it to be whatever she wanted. 

“Nice to meet you,” Ben muttered. He seemed to mutter a lot. 

They devolved into an awkward silence for a few moments. Rey finished with her gloves and began to pull the tables down from the truck.

Rey came around the side of the truck and, for the first time that day, saw Ben full on.

The first thing she noticed was how ridiculously tall he was, followed shortly by how strong he looked. That man was downright intimidating.

Well, at least he would be good at reaching things. And carrying heavy boxes.

And probably knocking people out with his bare hands, if he felt like it.

Rey was scrambling.

Nobody but Finn and Rose had shown up. Rose had taken her usual spot at the check-in, leaving Rey, and Ben to deal with six tables on two sides of the truck between the three of them. Finn had taken one side and Rey had taken the other, leaving Ben to help out where he saw fit. Evidently, he had seen fit to help on the other side of the truck, because Rey hadn’t seen hide nor hair of him since they had opened.

Which meant that she had to deal with three tables, including one with unbagged pears, on her own. Fun.

So yes, Rey was having a very hectic day. 

A huge group of people was coming through the line at the moment, which was definitely not helping things. Oh well. At least she was getting her exercise with all this frantic running from table to table in a desperate bid to keep everything running.

Of course, that was when the old lady dropped her bag in the middle of the line.

Rey bit back a curse. This was not good. She couldn’t keep the line running and help the old lady at the same time, especially if she had to stay as COVID-safe as possible. Desperately, she motioned for the people behind the lady to move around her and put a few bags of oranges on the next table over, since the disaster was in front of the oranges table. She hurriedly helped a few people through the line before looking back at the old lady, who was very, very slowly struggling to pick everything up. Rey muttered a curse. She either had to leave the lady to her own devices or stall the line trying to help her, and either option increased the COVID risk for everyone involved. Great.

Then a tall, dark, brooding shadow rounded the corner of the truck, and Ben was here.

Rey tried to be frustrated at the sight of him, but all she felt was relief. 

“A little help?” she said, running to refill a bucket of pears and gesturing at the shipwrecked lady.

Ben nodded and crouched next to the woman, saying something Rey couldn’t hear and gesturing for her to back away so he could help her with her bags. Rey’s attention was soon diverted as she hastened to push people their produce without getting too close to anyone — a constant geometrical challenge made harder by the line of impatient people waiting for her to hurry up. Before she had time to worry about Ben again, he had finished gathering the fruit off the floor and was carrying the three bags of produce and to the lady’s car for her. Rey absolutely did not think about the strength he was exhibiting or the grateful expression on the old lady’s face. She was busy, after all.

It was only a few moments before he returned, the old lady and her bags safely deposited in her car. Rey expected him to go back to wherever he had been brooding before and was surprisingly relieved when he instead started pushing bags of oranges into place.

It was just because his presence would make things easier, of course.

“I’ll handle oranges and onions,” he said. “If you want, that is.”

Rey blinked, then smiled at him despite herself. “Thanks,” she said gratefully before turning her attention to the pears. They worked in silence for several minutes except for Rey’s cheerful calls of “You’re welcome!” and “Have a nice day!” in response to any thanks thrown her way. Ben simply nodded when he was spoken to, but Rey noticed his small smile at the gratitude directed at him and wondered if perhaps he wasn’t as ill-natured as she’d thought. 

Eventually, the line thinned and trickled to a stop in the dry spell that often came, on and off, between 12:35 and 12:50. Rey leaned against the truck and let out a long breath.

“Thanks for that,” she said again, glancing at Ben. “I don’t know if I could have kept everything running on my own.”

“It’s nothing,” said Ben. “I should have been there before.”

“Why weren’t you?” Rey asked, curious both about the answer and how he would react to the question.

Ben smiled ruefully. “I was being given a lecture on polite behavior from your friend on the other side of the truck.”

Rey stifled a laugh and tried to paste a sympathetic look on her face. “Sorry about that. Finn can be quite emphatic sometimes.”

Ben chuckled softly. “It’s fine, I deserved it. I was pretty terrible last time.” He sighed. “I’m not exactly good at socializing.”

Rey blinked at the unexpected honesty. Before she could come up with a way to reply, a few people came through the line, and the volunteers’ attention was drawn away from the conversation as they helped them out. 

Rey and Ben chatted on and off throughout the rest of the hour. She learned that he lived alone, that he enjoyed calligraphy, and that he had a secret love for cats but hadn’t been able to get one yet. He was surprisingly clever, once he stopped muttering too softly to be heard and actually spoke. 

When the hour was up and it was time to close, they wiped off the tables in companionable silence. Ben singlehandedly lifted the tables into the truck like it was no big deal, and Rey laughed at his frustrated muttering when he couldn't quite get it in before she went to help. They closed everything up without issue, and Rey waved at everyone as she carried her produce to her car. She caught Ben’s eyes as he got into the truck, and he smiled at her and waved. His smile was surprisingly cute.

Rey shook her head at her thoughts, smiled, and waved back before getting into the car. Interestingly, she found that she no longer dreaded the next time she’d be here, despite the forecast that it would rain.

Maybe this Ben guy wasn’t so bad, after all.


End file.
